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copyright 2002 by the ARTS Consortium. ARTS is a project within the fifth framework programme of the European Union - competitive and sustainal growth.
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Description of the demonstration in several languages
de | en | es | fi | gr | hu | sw
Place: Hungary / County of Bács-Kiskun
1. General Description of the Demo
The aim of the Hungarian project, DEVELOPMENT is to develop school transportation service and related information system. The transportation of pupils and students is still an unsolved and serious problem in Hungary, mainly in rural areas. Pupils visiting school away from their home are usually delivered to schools by regular public transportation or cars if any of them is available.
In order to contribute to develop school transportation, two regular school buses have been implemented between Kecskemét and two nearby settlements, Matkó and Szarkás. DEVELOPMENT started on the 2nd of September, 2002 and the end of the demonstration is 13rd of June. This initiative will hopefully give an example for other municipalities and help pupils and students from rural areas to get high-level education without moving to cities.
2. Description of the Area
The focus of the demonstration area is Kecskemét, centre of Bács-Kiskun county. There are some small nearby settlements that belong to the administrative area of Kecskemét. The demonstration includes two of these settlements, Matkópuszta (or Matkó) and Szarkás and Kecskemét itself.
Matkó has independent territory with defined border, but it takes part of the administrative area of Kecskemét. Matkó does not have its own mayor, but it has representatives in the Municipality Council of Kecskemét. Szarkás has the same administrative status as Matkó. It has independent territory with defined border, but it is part of the administrative area of Kecskemét.
Szarkás also does not have its own mayor, but it has representative in the Municipality Council of Kecskemét.
3. Characteristics of Services
· Timetable
School buses operate every school-day (during school-year period five days a week) in the morning and in the afternoon. Matkó-Kecskemét: at 7:15 to Kecskemét, at 13:30 to Matkó. Szarkás-Kecskemét: at 7:25 to Kecskemét at 15:30 to Szarkás.
The duration of service trip is 15 minutes between Matkó and Kecskemét and 20 minutes between Szarkás and Kecskemét.
· Stops
In Matkó there are three school bus stops (1. stop: along the route, on the service road, about 1 kilometer before the border of the built-up area, 2. stop: just at the border of the built-up area, 3. stop: at the centre of Matkó) while in Szarkás there is one stop. In Kecskemét school buses stop only in stops at elementary schools.
4. Vehicles in use
School buses are Ikarus 415 (see appendix), seat capacity: 45.
5. Fares
The municipality pays for monthly tickets of pupils, the service is free of charge for them. The price of them are third of the full price. The responsible teacher buys and distributes the tickets to pupils every month.
6. Operator
The operator of school buses is Kunság Volán LS. This company is the operator of regular local and overland buses, too. There are 30 local bus lines in Kecskemét operated by the company, buses to nearby settlements and overland buses to cities e.g. Budapest.
In Hungary regional transportation companies are mostly not public ones, but the main owner is the state. Local and regional bus lines are operated by the regional companies, while overland bus lines are shared among them according to traditions. It means that there is no competition because of the lack of private operators competing for passengers. (Expect for some cases the situation is similar nationwide.)
7. Public Authority
There is one authority involved in the demo, the Municipality of Kecskemét. The two settlements, Matkó and Szarkás belong to its administrative area and elect authorized representatives in the Municipality.
The Municipality has an important role in the demo, because it provides free season tickets for the school buses for pupils.
8. School transportation
School buses serve two elementary schools in Kecskemét and one special elementary school in Szarkás. Pupils from Matkó and Szarkás are taken to different elementary schools in the southern part of Kecskemét. Some children from Kecskemét (approximately 8 people) are taken to Szarkás Gordon method elementary school.
The Municipality of Kecskemét closed schools in small settlements and because regular private transport is improper to provide school transportation they have to provide school bus service.
There is only one company in public bus transportation sector in this area, thus there was no other opportunity but Kunság Volán.
Municipality pays for season tickets of pupils because elementary education is free and obligatory in Hungary and children have the right to get to school free of charge.
Although this service is school transportation and buses run on routs different from any regular bus line, there is limited opportunity for regular passengers to travel on school buses. They are mainly elderly people and their presence does not disturb journey of pupils. There is always a teacher aboard who takes care of the pupils.
9. Users
The main users of school bus service are naturally pupils, aged 6 to 14.
From Szarkás to Kecskemét 25 pupils and 5 regular passengers, from Kecskemét to Szarkás 8 pupils and from Matkó to Kecskemét 50 pupils take school buses regularly.
The problems and the difficulties the demonstration has faced in the beginning of the planning phase are very similar to those anticipated in the research of the ARTS-partners. The main similarities can be described as follows:
· co-operation among parts of the administration (depending on the hierarchy) is lacking,
· lack of competition between operators, because every bus operator has its own operating area with strict borders (based on the county system),
· a lack of up-to-date traffic information to provide travellers with better information about the current traffic situation, e.g. delays, changes, etc.,
· no political will to make innovative ideas more attractive or to disseminate the results of EU projects and future possibilities for innovation,
· branches of small farms are very far apart, which makes it difficult to provide economically efficient mobility services for inhabitants in low density areas with limited willingness to pay for what are perceived as expensive transport services.
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